http://en.rian.ru/world/20080624/111914114.html
Russia hopes Israel allows armored vehicle supplies to PNA
Berlin, June 24 (RIA Novosti) - Russia is hoping Israel will resolve issues
blocking the delivery of 50 armored personnel carriers to the Palestinian
territories as part of an aid program, the Russian foreign minister said
Tuesday.
"We have been ready to hand 50 APCs to Palestinian Administration security
agencies for a long time. For the time being, unfortunately, they cannot be
delivered to the PNA due to questions the Israeli side has. I hope these issues
will be finally settled soon," Sergei Lavrov said at an international donor
conference on the Middle East in Berlin.
Lavrov said Russia has donated $40 million in aid to the Palestinian
authorities for security programs. The minister also said hundreds of
Palestinian security officers had undergone specialist training at Russian
centers.
The foreign minister said if the Hamas-Israeli truce, which was brokered with
Egyptian mediation and started June 19 in the Gaza Strip, lasted the planned
six months then the next step in settling the Middle East would be Palestinian
unity. On Tuesday, however, the ceasefire was violated by Palestinian militants
who launched a mortar attack from the Gaza Strip on Israel's south.
As part of the agreement reached with Egypt's mediation it is also planned that
economic sanctions will be gradually lifted and talks will resume on a prisoner
exchange program to swap Palestinians currently being held in Israel for an
Israeli soldier, captured two years ago by Palestinian militants.
Israel has placed restrictions on fuel supplies and deliveries of other
essential goods to Gaza as part of its attempt to pressure Hamas to stop rocket
attacks on Israeli border towns. The radical Islamic group seized control of
the enclave from the pro-Palestinian presidential Fatah movement 12 months ago.
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